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BSP have every right to feel content. After all, the almost men of sylvan, jagged rock, the pride of Britain's bookish, bird-watching bohemia, have made an album that's deserving of their swagger. Do you like rock music? If not, here's the perfect place to start.
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While DYLRM? lacks the wild-eyed spits and howls of "Decline Of British Sea Power," it's definitely BSP's most rocking effort yet, replacing the sterility that plagued its sophomore slump, "Open Season," with stadium-sized bravado.
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They muster compelling music that sounds like triumph in the face of adversity, building something beautiful out of the building blocks of sadness and despair.
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Wired with a sense of opportunity, these little Caesars continue to play mother's favourite rather than the ostracised gurning recluses they initially cast themselves as.
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You can almost feel the wind and rain outside, and this adds to the mixture of melancholia and euphoria throughout, the latter realised most obviously on 'Waving Flags.' And that's the spirit that runs through this fine album, staying with the listener long after the final stanzas of 'We Close Our Eyes' bring it full circle.
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This is another huge step forward for a band not afraid to take them.
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Under The RadarRock Music goes further, showcasing a fully mature band turning out immense tracks that combine the best elements from their previous works. [Winter 2008, p.80]
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DYLRM should be a mess, but the band has crafted a wintry, nuanced, and bold collection of epic songs that integrate the sweeping theatricality of Arcade Fire-era indie rock without all of the insularity.
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Entertainment WeeklyEven as the band never quite achieves the transcendent moments of its influences, standouts like 'No Lucifer' and 'Waving Flags' touch real greatness. [Feb 15 2008, p.65]
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Yan and Hamilton manage to capture old clichés in new ways and that, filtered through their weirdness and idiosyncrasies, the sentiments seems new (or at least more original).
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Do You Like Rock Music? is a large, unabashed attempt at greatness, and where other bands might diffuse into a chaotic mess in the process (ahem, Broken Social Scene), British Sea Power remain, skillfully intact.
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Do You Like Rock Music? doesn't fail miserably--which at least might have been more interesting--but disappoints gently.
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A powerful collection of passionate, anthemic rockers that will no doubt please their hardcore following whilst winning new converts to the cause.
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Do You Like Rock Music? is the glorious sound of a unique band going for broke.
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BSP aren't going for a concept album here (or concepts at all, really), but you'd be forgiven for expecting one given how beautifully the collection of songs coheres into a singular piece of work and retains momentum through its movements.
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MojoBriitsh Sea Power's third album proves once again there's more to them than stuffed owls and a facination with odd geological landmarks. [Feb 2008, p.100]
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Q MagazineThe result is an album that balances intellectual importance with the simple pleasures if great melodies played on meaty guitars. [Feb 2008, p.94]
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In Do You Like Rock Music?, there seems to be a condensed clarity of vision, that vision being rock bigness and youthful enthusiasm and curing inertia and malaise, in the vein of the aforementioned past British masters.
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Early on frontman Yan (Scott Wilkinson) wishes us, "Welcome for a day--or stay forever," and if you do like rock music, you'll likely choose the latter.
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Alternative PressThe result is a vivid, nostalgic traipse into what good rock bands ought to sound like. [Mar 2008, p. 144]
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BSP has backed up its postured oddities and idiosyncrasies with a new raison d'être: to deliver the true stuff of rock 'n' roll.
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The band's third and possibly best full-length leans in a bit harder than usual, and dazzles throughout.
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Opener 'All in It,' a slow-building swell of voices and guitars, sets the tone for album that's unashamed of its epic accessibility.
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FilterThe only thing odd about this genuinely explosive record is in how fearlessly it expresses it's passion. [Winter 2008, p.94]
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Rock Music is free of both the maudlin and the mundane, and oddly rousing, too.
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Do You Like Rock Music? might be fashionably rough around all the right edges, but there's definitely still enough lyrical wit and musical beauty contained herein to warrant your attention.
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With guitars that ring and roar and percussion that gushes and thunders, they finally turn theirlyrical perculiarities into a legitimate churn of ideas, rather than a posturing diversion. [Feb 2008, p.92]
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For all the strength of the variously loud and soft moments throughout Do You Like Rock Music?, the record is at its best when the band attempts to holistically integrate the two.
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BlenderThings get almost crushingly heavy, but he fights through his nightmares like he's one spastic stab in the dark from flicking on a night light. [Apr 2008, p.77]
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Rock Music proves BSP can hold their course.
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British Sea Power are still without a 'Wake Up' or a 'Float On' but Do You Like Rock Music? is exhilarating in its ambition, full of songs that will warm the cockles at whichever National Heritage site they choose to play next.
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The greatest fault of Do You Like Rock Music? is that it is a statement album without a statement, only a response.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 60 out of 69
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Mixed: 4 out of 69
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Negative: 5 out of 69
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MarkL.Mar 12, 2008
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Nov 3, 2014
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JimG.Apr 4, 2008